Hey lads, welcome back to today’s episode where we’ll be going into arguably one of the most important pages on SM23. So, the first thing that needs to be done is to figure out the style of manager that you are. There are 3 different styles that we can choose from, and once we’ve made a choice there is no possible way of going back. That is why it’s my responsibility to help you identify your style before you make any regrettable mistake.
A final thing to mention before we get into it is that regardless of the style that you choose, we all still have to work extremely hard at our set up in order to improve our abilities (that’s if you wanna improve organically, of course)
Now then, let’s get into the styles:
TRAINING MANAGER
Also known as a tracksuit manager, this style of manager is all about being on the training ground looking to improve each player at his disposal. He specializes in getting the most out of performing different drills and has the ability to understand how to get the best out of every player which has the potential of making them improve quicker than if he was one of the other two styles.
This style of manager is more suitable for ex- players who have been playing at the highest level for a while and can relate to each player’s likes and interests in terms of the types of drills they like to perform. The major downfall to this style of manager is that he can be quite tactically and financially inept which means that it becomes easier to lose the tactical battle against better managers, but if you’re someone who’s all about player development then this is the style for you.
If you want an example of top training managers in real life, some of the best around currently are Arsenal’s Mikel Arteta, Dortmund’s Marco Rose, and Barcelona’s Xavi Hernandez.
SUIT MANAGER
A manager with all the analytics, this style of manager primarily focuses on the on-goings off the field of play. They specialize in helping the club with recruitment, sponsorships and consider their own personal brand as a weapon in order to ensure that the club is well taken care of from a financial point of view. They always get involved with negotiations of new players as well as current players who are looking to improve or extend their contract. You can assure that your club’s bottom line will always be in a good place with this style of manager in charge. Now, none of the above is to downgrade their capabilities as a manager because they would not be in the position if they didn’t know a thing or two about football. It just should be considered that their main priority will be to help the club with it’s stability off the field. Suit Managers are also quite passive when it comes to coaching players since they allow their Assistant to do bulk of the training, but they always have the final say in who gets to play and when.
Of course, the downside to this style of manager is that they will never be considered a “tactical genius” or “great at developing players”, but if you’re someone who actually wants to understand what it’s like on the business side of football then this style is for you.
There aren’t a lot of Suit Managers out there anymore unfortunately but some of the greatest managers ever such as Sir Alex Ferguson, Arsene Wenger, Vincente Del Bosque, Rafa Benitez, can Carlo Ancelotti can all be considered Suit Managers.
TACTICAL MANAGER
I’m assuming that at least 70% of the people reading this will fall into this category of manager since that is exactly why we all love playing this game. The Tactical Manager is all about coming up with various different methods of getting the best out of their players when they come up against the opposition. They are the innovators who keep transforming the game with their tactical insight, positional discoveries and in game awareness. This is the style of Manager who has converted the traditional 4-4-2 into 5 other different variations, introduced 3 at the back formations, and also identified the type of role that each player will best perform in.
You can expect that your team will perform well on the pitch whilst being a Tactical Manager, but you absolutely must ensure that each player is a right fit for your tactical set up. This leads me to the downfalls of being a Tactical manager in that although you have the capability to develop players within your team you’ll never be as great compared to the Training Manager, and a Tactical Manager tends to be clueless with everything going off the pitch so the Suit Manager has that on him.
There are an abundance of Tactical Managers in the game right now with the one leading the way at the moment being, of course, Josep Guarlioda (So good that I had to call him by his full name hahaha). Some other top ones are Julian Naglesmann, Thomas Tuchel, Marcelo Bielsa, Erik Ten Haag and Luis Enrique just to name a few.
WHAT ABOUT KLOPP??? 🤔
I’m sure that some of you are wondering where the heck is Jurgen Klopp in this discussion of great managers. I’m here to let you know that I haven’t forgotten about him (how could anyone), but he dosen’t necessarily fall into any of the above styles. He’s not the only one though, as there a group of brilliant managers who need their own style of management, and the name of that style is:
MOTIVATIONAL MANAGER
This style of manager possesses some of the components of the other three, but what makes them stand out is their ability to get the absolute best out of their players via making them believe that they are unstoppable. They are amazing at performing speeches that get players fired up, they know how to use psychology to get a reaction out of their players, and they are top tier when it comes to individually treating every single player within their squad differently (also known as man management). Some of the best examples of Motivational Managers are the aforementioned Jurgen Klopp, Jose Mourinho, Antonio Conte, and Diego Simeone.
MANAGER PAGE
As you can see from the image, there is A LOT going on here on this page. So, for the sake of not letting this blog go over the 5 minute mark, let’s identify each item on here then go into more detail tomorrow. Sounds good? 👍
If you take a look at the left of your screen, you will see the image of your chosen style of management (I’ve chosen Tactical), the icon associated with your current level of management, your Managerial level (as well as a bar indicating how far you are from progressing to the next level,) and your current Managerial Attributes which indicate your current ability.
The next half of the page is where you can find your Manager “traits” which is basically the area where you get to improve some of the abilities that you can do via using Manager points which can be obtained by getting good results from your matches.
That’s enough for today soccermanagerite as I do not want to keep you here for long. Join us tomorrow as we go into more detail of the best managerial video game on the planet! ✌️
The Soccermanager Experience 